Reading

Comprehension
RAQUEL ARAGON MIEN

DEVELOPMENTAL Reading I

Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to
read text, process it and understand its
meaning.
An
individual's
ability
to
comprehend text is influenced by their
traits and skills, one of which is the ability
to make inferences. If word recognition is
difficult, students use too much of their
processing capacity to read individual
words, which interferes with their ability to
comprehend what is read. There are a
number of approaches to improve reading
comprehension, including improving one's
vocabulary and reading strategies.

Reading comprehension levels

Reading comprehension involves two levels of
processing, shallow (low-level) processing and
deep (high-level) processing.
Deep
processing
involves
semantic
processing, which happens when we encode
the meaning of a word and relate it to similar
words.
Shallow processing involves structural and
phonemic recognition, the processing of
sentence and word structure and their
associated sounds. This theory was first
identified by Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S.
Lockhart.

Reading comprehension is defined as the level

of understanding of a text/message. This
understanding comes from the interaction
between the words that are written and how
they
trigger
knowledge
outside
the
text/message.
Comprehension is a "creative, multifaceted
process" dependent upon four language skills:
phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
Proficient reading depends on the ability to
recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is
also determined by an individual's cognitive
development, which is "the construction of
thought processes". Some people learn through
education or instruction and others through
direct experiences.

There are specific traits that determine how

successfully an individual will comprehend
text, including prior knowledge about the
subject, well developed language, and the
ability to make inferences. Having the skill
to monitor comprehension is a factor: "Why
is this important?" and "Do I need to read
the entire text?" are examples. Lastly, is
the ability to be self-correcting to solve
comprehension problems as they arise

Brain region activation

Comprehension levels can now be observed
through the use of a fMRI, functional
magnetic resonance imaging. fMRIs' are used
to determine the specific neural pathways of
activation across two conditions, narrativelevel comprehension and sentence-level
comprehension. Images showed that there
was less brain region activation during
sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a
shared
reliance
with
comprehension
pathways. The scans also showed an
enhanced
temporal
activation
during
narrative levels tests indicating this approach
activates situation and spatial processing

History
Initially most comprehension teaching was
based on imparting selected techniques
that when taken together would allow
students to be strategic readers however in
40 years of testing these methods never
seemed to win support in empirical
research. One such strategy for improving
reading comprehension is the technique
called SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read,
Recite, and Review that was introduced by
Francis Pleasant Robinson in his 1946

Between 1969 and to about 2000 a number

of "strategies" were devised for teaching
students to employ self-guided methods for
improving reading comprehension. In 1969
Anthony
Manzo
designed
and
found
empirical support for the ReQuest, or
Reciprocal Questioning Procedure, it was
the first method to convert emerging
theories of social and imitation learning
into teaching methods through the use of a
talk rotation between students and teacher
called cognitive modeling.

Since
the
turn
of
the
21st
century,
comprehension lessons usually consist of
students
answering
teachers'
questions,
writing responses to questions on their own, or
both. The whole group version of this practice
also often included "Round-robin reading",
wherein teachers called on individual students
to read a portion of the text. In the last quarter
of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that
the read-test methods were more successful
assessing rather than teaching comprehension.
Instead of using the prior read-test method,
research studies have concluded that there are
much
more
effective
ways
to
teach
comprehension. Much work has been done in
the area of teaching novice readers a bank of
"reading strategies," or tools to interpret and
analyze text.

Instruction in comprehension strategy

use often involves the gradual release
of responsibility, wherein teachers
initially explain and model strategies.
Over time, they give students more
and more responsibility for using the
strategies until they can use them
independently.
This
technique
is
generally associated with the idea of
self-regulation and reflects social
cognitive
theory,
originally
conceptualized by Albert Bandura.